KOTA KINABALU (Jan 21): Sabah’s new Covid-19 cases on Friday dropped about 80 to 176 from the previous day.
Three deaths were recorded with two in Keningau and one in Beaufort.
Twenty-four cases were reported as critical with 19 under intensive care and seven requiring breathing aid, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun in his daily Sabah Covid-19 statement.
He also said that 19 patients or 25.33 percent categorised under stage four and stage five have yet to complete their vaccination.
Kota Kinabalu continued to record the highest number of cases with 41.
Covid-19 infections breached the 4,000-mark for the first time this year after the Ministry of Health logged 4,046 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The last time Malaysia recorded daily Covid-19 cases above the 4,000-mark was on December 18 after recording 4,083 infections that day.
The latest figure represents an increase of 282 cases from the 3,764 new infections recorded on Saturday.
It also brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country, since the start of the pandemic, to 2,824,973.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also disclosed that only 33 or 0.8 per cent of cases reported today were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation.
“There are currently 149 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 29 are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.
“Out of these 149, 71 need ventilators to help them breathe, including 49 who are confirmed as Covid-19 positive,” he said.
He added that 12 new clusters were also detected over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of active clusters in the country to 220.
He said that Malaysia’s rate of infection currently stands at 1.00, with Kuala Lumpur being the state with the highest infectivity rate, at 1.13.